Sandy 4 St Albans

The public meeting on Friday 13^th April with Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat MP for Kingston-upon-Thames, on how to beat Tesco
was a huge success.  Indeed it set a benchmark for cross-party working in St Albans.

The meeting was designed for local residents
opposed to the Tesco plans to meet Ed and learn how he successfully campaigned against a similar Tesco application in his
south London constituency.

It was standing room only in the Trinity United
Reform Church
hall. It was particularly gratifying
that Anne Main MP and Cllr Roma Mills both came to pick up campaigning tips from
Ed.

I opened the meeting by saying that I had been called on Thursday by an anxious Tesco and by their lobbyist that very morning.  It
shows that meetings of this kind do have an impact and can make a difference.

There were then opening speeches from Mike Dilke of the local non-party
political residents’ campaign, from local county councillor Chris White on
traffic and retail impact issues, and then from Ed Davey detailing all the key
arguments and points which worked in heading off Tesco in his own constituency.

I
was pleased to then invite Anne Main and Roma Mills to make their own
impressive contributions.  This really helped to emphasise the
all-party nature of the opposition to Tesco’s
current proposals. The subsequent
exchange of questions and answers between the audience and the panel worked just as I had hoped in teasing out
all sorts of useful tips and ideas.

As Ed Davey made clear, Tesco will still come back with new proposals
for his south London
constituency. They are not out of the
woods in Kingston
yet and still have a fight on their hands.
So he was delighted to take away learning points from the meeting too.

We ended up with Ed Davey, myself, Anne Main and Roma Mills standing
shoulder-to-shoulder with local residents.
It is so refreshing when politicians from different parties can
demonstrate they can work together and learn from each other. As
the heading of this website proclaims, on so many issues the real fight
is for St Albans and the villages, and should not just be about
politicians taking lumps out of each other.  I really hope this will be
a precedent for future
occasions in St Albans.